The Diligent Writers Critiquing Group. March 2011 Meeting.

Catastrophe happened.  The email I was using at my work was disabled due to a problem I don’t really understand; however I had all the emails for the group stored there.  I should have transferred all the emails to another account just in case, I had it on my mind, but I was too late. 

So now how do I contact everyone to announce the meeting?  (Sigh) I went to Meetup where I have the original Greater Cleveland Writers Group of which I am a member and started my own Meetup group. 

I was scared and worried about this on so many levels.  Would I be able to contact everyone on my list?  Would any one new be interested?  Would I be able to afford it?  Can I handle being a leader?  Will I be a success or failure?  As I said so many levels. 

Once I was able to get the web presence on Meetup going, it has been exciting and interesting.  I have new writers looking for a place to get feedback, 16 at last count, and we had our first meeting on Saturday March 19^th.  Three new people arrived and one person who has been coming since the group started, plus me.  Next month will be bigger I’m sure. 

It was exciting to have new blood there and to discuss our work.  The only problem is when we were giving feedback it can be hard on the person giving and receiving said feedback.  There are lots of things involved. 

Since we are allowing any genre, the writing styles and the techniques are not the same. We had a few ego clashes.  Some of us are fairly new and need to work on our understanding of the writing process and the art of storytelling. 

I have been studying the art of storytelling and writing techniques on fiction writing for some time, however those techniques while good don’t apply to Memoirs, or literary journal papers, or cook books.  All we can do as a group is decide if it reads well and we understand it.  The actually learning will have to be done by the writers. 

I can try to explain what I learned in my books; however there is a fine line between being the writer who knows what is going on and the reader who is coming to the work cold.  Keep in mind of that when new readers, even if they are writers themselves, say they don’t understand what you mean.  Just a few rewrites will make it easy and in the long run better to understand.  We all have

I guess I may have to post the rules of the feedback process for the meeting and then enforce them as the meeting progresses.  This should be interesting.  Hay maybe I can use any conflict as ideas in my future writing.  (Light Bulb going off)  Of course I will twist what really happens and change the names.  But ideas can come from anything.  Until next time.  

To find The Diligent Writers Critiquing Group website click here:  www.meetup.com/The-Diligent-Writers-Critiquing-Group